Putin and Trump discussed Middle East tensions and the war with Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump held a lengthy call Saturday to discuss the escalating situation in the Middle East and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Trump in a posting on his Truth Social platform said they spent the bulk of their conversation focused on Israel’s ongoing blistering attacks aimed at decapitating Iran’s nuclear program and Iran’s retaliatory strikes. But Trump said that he also pressed Putin to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“He feels, as do I, this war in Israel-Iran should end, to which I explained, his war should also end,” said Trump, who added the conversation went about an hour.

Putin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said Putin briefed Trump on his recent talks with the leaders of Iran and Israel and reiterated Russia’s proposal to seek mutually acceptable solutions on the Iranian nuclear issue.

“Vladimir Putin, having condemned the military operation against Iran, expressed serious concern about the possible escalation of the conflict,” Ushakov told reporters. He added that Putin raised concerns that escalating conflict between Israel and Iran threatened “unpredictable consequences for the entire situation in the Middle East.”

New Israeli strikes kill at least 20 as war rages on

At least 20 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight and into Saturday, according to local health officials. The 20-month war with Hamas has raged on even as Israel has opened a new front with heavy strikes on Iran that sparked retaliatory drone and missile attacks.

Another 11 Palestinians were killed overnight near food distribution points run by an Israeli- and U.S.-supported humanitarian group in the latest of almost daily shootings near the sites since they opened last month. Palestinian witnesses say Israeli forces have fired on the crowds, while the military says it has only fired warning shots near people it describes as suspects who approached its forces.

The sites are located in military zones that are off limits to independent media. Israel’s military said it fired warning shots overnight to distance a group of people near troops operating in the Netzarim corridor, and an aircraft struck a person who kept advancing.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private contractor that operates the sites, said they were closed Saturday. But witnesses said thousands had gathered near the sites anyway, desperate for food as Israel’s blockade and military campaign have driven the territory to the brink of famine.

Al-Awda Hospital said it received eight bodies and at least 125 wounded people from a shooting near a GHF site in central Gaza.

Mohamed Abu Hussein, a resident of the built-up Bureij refugee camp nearby, said Israeli forces opened fire toward the crowd about a half-mile from the food distribution point. He said he saw several people fall to the ground as thousands ran away.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, Nasser Hospital said it received 16 dead, including five women, from multiple Israeli strikes late Friday and early Saturday.

At least 100 are people killed by gunmen, rights group says

At least 100 people have been killed in a gun attack on a village in Nigeria ’s north-central Benue state, Amnesty International Nigeria said Saturday.

The attack took place between late Friday and the early hours of Saturday in Yelewata, a community in the Guma area of the state, the rights group said in a Facebook post.

Dozens of people are still missing, and hundreds were injured and without adequate medical care, it added.

“Many families were locked up and burnt inside their bedrooms. So many bodies were burnt beyond recognition,” Amnesty said.

— Denver Post wire services